Great Expectations

I don’t really know what to expect from this course. I know I expect to see some of the most amazing and influential art of this time period.  I expect to see the most popular pieces of architecture and art that I have studied in my art history text books. I am looking forward to getting to know the lesser known pieces through this class. I anticipate travelling and sight-seeing. And I am totally excited to experience the culture that is surrounding me.

As for the texts in the course I want to expand upon my English/Literature background. I think that is the best thing about this trip because it combines both my minor and major in a way that keeps me interested. I want to use what I learn here from Dr. Leininger and Dr. Adkins and how they combine the literature and pieces of art because it will be helpful for my English thesis for next semester. I am also combining literature and art, Madame Bovary and the work of Courbet and seeing how the ideology and culture of France at this time influenced both pieces. I think that this is what this course is going to be as well; a very New Historicism approach to the Renaissance. So even though I am looking at a much later time period I will be able to have an example of how to combine the two successfully. Since I will be writing my thesis next semester this is pretty much the most important thing about the class to apply for next year.

I also look forward to seeing how different texts can be dealt with outside of the classroom setting. I took a Renaissance Literature and a Medieval literature course at GWU but I want to see what else I can learn about it in the country they were written around some of the same structures that existed in that time frame. It should be an interesting comparison.

 I think the thing I fear the most is not having enough time to get to do everything that I expect to do. For example we only have a short weekend in Rome (well really it is a long weekend but the amount of time does not do the city’s history justice) and there is so much I want to see that it nearly seems impossible. I want to go to the Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, etc. But because the visit is so limited in the city, I fear I won’t be able to experience it all while I can. I also am a bit apprehensive about working with the music of the Renaissance. I can appreciate it because I am an artistic person but I don’t know how much of it I will be able to comprehend.

So I suppose I do expect a lot from the course but I am also aware of how my expectations could actually be sub-par from the actual experiences that I am going to have while in Italy.